1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for use with a flammability test, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for assessing burn injury to underlying tissue from flammable material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, government standards exist in both the United States and the United Kingdom which require fabrics used in garments worn by children to pass a "flammability test." However, current flammability standards are inadequate.
Current flammability standards in the United States and the United Kingdom require that fabrics pass satisfactory limits of ignitability and flame spread when burned according to specific guidelines. These standards have several major shortcomings. An extremely important measure which is ignored by the current standards is the rate and the amount of heat that is released to the skin and underlying tissues as a fabric burns. It is this measure which determines the actual effects of the burning material on an individual wearing the garment. The lack of standards using heat release as a factor allows many fabrics to pass current legal standards although the fabrics are actually extremely dangerous. For example, approximately 50% of burn injuries result from fabrics which have passed the current standards. As a result of these flawed standards and tests, there is still a high incidence of severe burn injuries to children caused by their clothing catching on fire.
In the United Kingdom, the Department of Trade and Industry reports that during the period of 1991-1995, 18 injuries were the result of burns caused by children's clothing catching on fire. In addition, 5 deaths during the period of 1990-1994 in the United Kingdom were attributed to burns caused by children's clothing catching on fire (HADD, 1990-1994, LASS, HASS, 1991-1995). According to both the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a large portion of the total injuries to children involving daywear are caused by burns. These two organizations report that in the United States during the period of 1991-1995, 244 total injuries were the result of burns caused by children's clothing catching on fire. Despite the presence of standard flammability tests for fabrics in the United States and the United Kingdom, there remains a high incidence of burn injuries to children caused by clothing catching on fire. Therefore, the current tests and standards must be modified in order to better screen out flammable fabrics with the highest potential to cause injury.
Attempts have been made in the past to devise improved testing equipment and standards. After the first consumer garment laws were developed in the 1950s, more stringent laws were passed in the 1960s and 1970s. These laws brought about a period of intensive research in the field of fabric flammability. In the early 1970s, a series of studies were carried out which attempted to quantify the amount of heat released from fabrics during burning. However, these studies proved to be inadequate in modeling the amount of heat released to the underlying skin from burning fabric. These studies did not adequately mimic the thermal properties of the skin and underlying tissues. Since the 1970s, however, there has been very little fire-related literature, largely as result of a decrease in funds for research.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus and method for assessing burn injury to underlying tissue from a flammable material which will also measure the heat released to the underlying tissue.